Creeps Like Me
by To-Do-Lister
Summary: The Pack thought that it was fitting.  Of course Seth Clearwater would find his Imprint in an ice cream shop.  Of course he would first make a fool of himself.  Of course he would proceed to stalk her for weeks on end.  "Wait.  You've been doing WHAT!"
1. Here, have some Love Interest

Here, have some Love Interest

The Pack thought it was amusing and highly appropriate. The thought-jacking sparklepire found it just plain hilarious. He himself felt that they could all go to hell while he packed up himself and his, used some tribal funds, and took off for the Bahamas. Hmmmm... that was a nice thought. The Bahamas. He could convince Her to wear a bikini. Only, the beach would have to be deserted. There was _no_ way that he's share Her with anyone. This was part of what everyone else found so funny. Seth, amicable, easy-going, fun-loving Seth was the jealous type. More than Paul and Sam put together.

Seth phased human and pulled on his jeans, growling from the jokes and general laughter directed at him. He didn't care, it was time to go see Her. Walking to the little ice cream shop in Forks, hands stuffed deep in in his pockets, Seth contemplated.

His packmates called it daydreaming, but he didn't agree. This was serious thinking being done here. In fact, he was currently thinking of a more tactful way of asking Her out than to just drop a napkin with his number on it on her table as he left. Perhaps a more romantic approach...?

He hoped She would be there today. She always came every Tuesday at noon, without fail for the last three weeks. It had really just been an accident that he'd ever caught sight of Her. Quil had been a pain to Jake for some time. whining about wanting more time with Claire. He'd ended up whining a little bit too often, because Jake put him on double shifts for a few days. One of those extra shifts landed directly on the date and time that he'd promised Claire to go get ice cream. Much to Quil's disappointment, non of his packmates would take that particular shift. But Seth had been happy to take Claire to get her ice cream!

Claire had been happily settled with her rainbow sherbet, and Seth had just sat down with his much deliberated over cookie dough. Then, not three tables from him, he saw it. A flash of white on red. He looked closer, and saw it was a girl.

At first, he was confused. Where had he seen that flash of white? She had a soft-serve chocolate cone, and was staring off into space foggily. Then her eyes drifted down to the cone, turned it deliberately, and took another lick. The turn revealed the ice cream in question to be a vanilla/chocolate twist. After quite some time, the whole process repeated itself.

Seth soon learned to anticipate when the chocolate was facing him - it meant she took another lick of the vanilla, soft creamy white against the bright red tongue, then closed lips. He could smell her chapstick from where he sat, a cheerful raspberry scent. Sometimes she would accidentally get a tiny speck of the frozen treat on one berry coated lip, which prompted the reappearance of the often still-cream covered tongue.

Then the moment came. Instead of looking down at her cone, she brought it up to her mouth, though her mind was obviously still a thousand miles away. Seth didn't see the actual moment of contact, but the girl jerked the cone away from her face, a dab of chocolate now resting ridiculously on her nose.

He couldn't help it - he had to snort back loud laughter. Still too loud, the girl heard it and lifted her eyes reproachfully to find the offender.

Their eyes met.

Then the girl was no longer just 'the girl'. Now she was Her.

He smiled at Her, a tad arrogantly. She blushed violently, grabbing the napkin from around the cone and swiping furiously at the dot. Flushed, She finished Her treat hurriedly and left, which wiped the smile off his face quicker than the ice cream had gone from Hers.

Much to Claire's displeasure, she was removed from the interior of the ice cream shop and deposited in the interior of the Pack's communal truck. The seven year old opened her mouth to complain, and then realized the speed at which the shapeshifter was moving.

This wasn't quite 'imprint in danger' speed, but it wasn't as slow as 'secret about to be found out by a human'. Perhaps it was more along the lines of ' human imprint is getting away and we don't know who she is or where she lives' speed.

When Claire was dumped unceremoniously with Emily with only a garbled explanation from Seth, she decided that this was exactly the case.

Oh well. At least she still got her ice cream.


	2. Would you like some Curiosity with that?

Would you like some Curiosity with that?

Most of the time, he brought Claire or Sam and Emily's kid with him on these trips to the ice cream shop. Mostly because he knew that She would realize he was stalking Her and probably freak out.

He wanted to smile at Her today. The last two times he had simply made sure that She had no idea he was watching Her. This time would be different.

Thomasina Anne Sykes. The rest of the Pack had taken to calling Her by Her full name, to encourage Seth to actually use it. He refused. In his head, She was still 'Her' or 'She'. It drove the rest of them crazy.

It didn't matter to him. He was about two minutes away from seeing Her again, and nothing but that mattered. Seth wondered idly if he should have asked one of the imprinted wolves advice on what to do to get Her attention...but that could also go far, far down hill. Last time someone had tried that, they ended up not only making a fool of themselves, but also embarrassing their imprint. He didn't want to embarrass Her.

Seth Clearwater was not a stupid boy. He may only be nineteen, and perhaps had wheedled the Elders into fudging his junior year in high school into an acceptable GPA, but he was certainly not stupid. He wasn't, per se, book-smart. Nor was he particularly intelligent, in the way of the general human populace. What Seth was, was animal-clever. He had a cunning, shrewd wolf mind. This brain of his had told him some weeks ago what he must do to avoid embarrassing or frightening Her.

What, precisely, was it that this animal-mind told Seth to do? Watch.

Watch your prey.

First rule of hunting - keep your prey in your sights. So Seth obeyed his baser instincts, and did what many police would have told him was illegal, and many women would have told him was completely creepy. He stalked Her.

Thanks to his stalking habits, Seth learned a good deal about Thomasina Anne Sykes. There were the obvious things, things that he had known upon his first sight of Her, such as Her appearance and scent. She was average height, pale as all get-out, with the most violently red hair he had ever seen.

Her hair was what made him surprised he had not seen Her upon entering the ice-cream shop, that first day. Such a color, on top of that it was so tightly curled that it stuck out of Her head in all directions, if it didn't reach for the heavens and acted like normal hair, it might come to Her ears. She had disturbingly black eyes - even for a guy who'd grown up around primarily dark-eyed people. The red-headed requisite blanket of freckles were present, also nearly violent in their evidence.

The things that he found out later, almost all of them, made him incredibly happy. She was involved with no-one, and seemed to be straight. She had a healthy relationship with Her family, and nice friends. She lived on the out-skirts of La-Push, and was still in high school.

She didn't smoke, do drugs, or drink regularly. She ate well, and got a good amount of sleep. The only thing that worried him was that She didn't seem to be terribly affectionate towards animals in general.

Oh, She had a dog (and a frog, though he wasn't sure that counted as either an animal or pet), but she was stern with the dog, and only stared at the frog. The dog was only a puppy at that... He wondered what She would think of him.

Finally reaching the ice-cream shop, Seth pushed the door open. Inspiration struck. Perhaps he should just sit down and start a conversation? What if She thought he was a creeper? Was he a creeper? Didn't stalking Her already elevate him... or rather, lower him, to this status? Shit, shit, shit... There She was! Dammit, he couldn't decide.

Her eyes caught his, surprisingly, but no recognition passed through them. A slight smile crossed Her now chapped lips before She went back to day-dreaming. He managed to grin back, mind made up, before She looked away. He went to get himself a cone, not even remembering what he ordered.

He knew why Her lips were chapped. She had dropped Her raspberry chap-stick two days prior and stepped on it by accident. That was the first time he had ever heard Her use a curse word. Of course, it was the worst one. For some insane reason, it made him ridiculously happy that he knew the reason that Her lips were chapped. He'd been there, he saw it happen. It somehow made him feel like he was a part of Her life. In a creepy kind of way.

As gracefully as a tall, muscled boy could, Seth swung himself into the seat across from Hers. He smiled at her, while She just looked confused, and slightly worried.

"Hiya."

She blinked at him, bit Her lip, and took a breath.

"Um, hi?"

A smirk. "Was that a question?"

She licked her lips now, nervously.

"Do.. um, do I know you?"

It wasn't a rude sounding question, but instead quietly imploring, as if She really didn't know if She knew him or not.

He kept his cool, "Well, as much as I wish you did... No, not yet anyways!" He playfully lifted his brows, suggesting that they should indeed know each other.

It seemed to be the right thing to say, as She instantly relaxed. "Oh! That's cool - who are you then? Have I seen you somewhere before?" Seth took a deep breath to reply, brows knitting when he smelled and heard something odd... She was... lying? How could you lie by asking a question? Seth still wasn't very good with this whole telling a person's mood by scent and heart-rate thing. Ah, that was it - She was nervous. This was processed in the matter of less than a second, and as he let out the breath, he said, "Seth. Seth Clearwater. And yeah, you've actually seen me in here occasionally. I usually come in with one of my brothers' kids. Plus... I really love ice cream."

She grinned at the last part, "Me too! I'm Thomasina Sykes - just call me Tommy or Tom-tom."

Seth had to take another deep breath - She, his very own imprint, had just told him Her name. Of Her own will. While _smiling_ at him. "Tom-tom? Like the direction things you put in your ca-" He clapped his hand over his mouth - had he really just let that horrifying, vaguely derogatory comment out of his mouth? But She was laughing again.

"Yeah! You're one of the first people to actually notice! It's because I'm really good with directions, and my friends eventually dubbed me the Tom-tom of the group when we were on a road-trip. It's stuck ever since!"

Seth opened his mouth to ask about this road-trip, when what else would happen, but a wolf howled in the distance. He gritted his teeth slightly, they _had_ to be kidding him - he was finally talking to his imprint! But the 'danger' howl came again, and he knew he had to answer.

"Hey, listen, I gotta run right now, but would it be really, um, forward of me to ask your number? I mean, if you don't want to, that's totally cool, and I completely get it - " "I'd love to give you my number - on one condition!"

There was no consideration to be done, "Sure! What's the condition?" She seemed taken aback, "Wow, just like that, huh? You don't even want to hear it before you agree?" He shrugged and grinned, "Nah, I'm pretty sure you're not going to ask anything off-the-wall, so shoot."

She took a deep breath, "Um, well, would you mind if I took a picture of you?" It was Seth's turn to be confused for once, "Uh, sure, I don't mind - go right ahead!" She pulled a fancy camera out of her bag, pointed it at him, mumbled "Cheese!" and took the picture. Then she did something odd. She pulled the camera away from her face, pressed the view picture button, looked at the little screen. Next she whipped out a pen, and wrote on her hand. He couldn't catch what she wrote.

After writing her number down on a napkin and sliding it over to him, she smiled rather prettily at him and calmly went back to her melting ice cream.

Seth made his goodbyes and left the shop, dragging his feet. He glanced back into the window, catching one last glimpse of his imprint. And, surprisingly, her hand. What was written on it confused him even more than some of her behavior.

_Photo # 74, Seth Clearwater._


	3. Might I suggest a Different Perspective?

Might I suggest an Alternative Perspective?

AN: Okay, so a couple people (read: two) have asked me why the hell she wrote down his name and a number on her hand, and a couple things in this chapter are probably going to be confusing as well, such as seeming incongruities with a couple assumptions Seth made in the last chapter, and also some things she says and does. HOWEVER! These confusing things are important to the storyline! I can't say, as that would ruin the surprise, but trust me on this one, ok? All will be explained in the next few chapters.

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Thomasina Anne Sykes was a person who tried very, very hard to be logical and practical. She did yoga, because it was good for your body. She ate healthy, because it was... well, healthy. She kept her small house tidy and organized, because it was easier to clean and find things. She had a dog, because her mother told her that she needed companionship. She also had a frog, which might be considered illogical, but when you took into account that a creative outlet was healthy and the frog inspired her to paint, that could be seen as practical as well.

Despite all of these things, done deliberately because they were logical and smart, Thomasina was not a practical person. Her motives were often run by emotion, of which she had a great deal. However, having been a loud, emotional child, and as such having been raised to be quieter and to stop being so silly, she tried desperately to not let on that most of what she wanted to do was loud and silly.

So, when Thomasina Anne Sykes got home after meeting the rather dashing young man, she did not jump up and down. She did not squeal. And she most _certainly_ did not run to her puppy, pick it up, twirl around with it, and promptly re-name it.

She, of course, was lying to herself when she thought this.

Upon Seth's departure from the ice cream shop, Thomasina had sat at the booth for some time, slowly finishing her soft-serve twist. After she was done, she got up, threw her napkin away, and walked to the counter. She looked at the cashier behind the counter carefully for a moment, studying her, and then took a deep breath.

"Kathy." The cashier looked up, "Yeah?" An intense look harbored behind Thomasina's eyes, "That was Seth Clearwater."

"Yeah."

"He was very attractive."

"Yeah."

"He asked me for my number."

"Yeah?"

"I gave it to him."

"Yea-wait, WHAT?"

Thomasina's friend's explosion only made her smile serenely. "I just gave Seth Clearwater my number. He's very pretty, Kathy. I took a picture, would you like to see?" The smile had most definitely turned into a smirk by the last sentence. Kathy stared at her friend of five years in utter disbelief.

Kathy had always known that Tommy wasn't really as logical as she liked to make people think. In fact, Kathy knew first-hand how very impulsive and rash she could be. She also knew how much Tommy regretted acting on those impulses later, since they were mostly impractical decisions. "Sweety, are you sure that's a good idea? And I already know who Seth is, he's in here every week. Cute kid, always brings his nephew or niece with him." Thomasina smiled again, "Kathy, calm down. I'm just excited that a cute guy who's actually in my age group wants to talk to me. And before you say it, shut up. I _know_ I get plenty of attention, but it's always guys who are too old, or too young, or too creepy, or worst of all, they don't understand. Won't understand - or rather, wouldn't understand even if I told them."

The other girl sighed, "Alright, fine, this is what I've heard about the guy. He's Quileute, lives down on the reservation, and is out of high school. He's got an older sister and a mom, but his dad died a couple years ago - his mom re-married at the start of school, to Forks' police chief. He also has a really tight group of friends, everyone on the rez calls them the 'pack' - they're all like brothers or something. That's about all I've got, though."

Thomasina's eyes gleamed slightly, "It's a perfectly good start. Is he involved at all?" Her college friend shook her head, "Nuh-uhhh... 'scuse me - How can I help you?" A young couple had just walked in, and looked like they were ready to order. After serving the boy a chocolate chip cookie dough and his girlfriend a plain vanilla, Kathy meandered back to Tommy, cleaning a scoop. She settled her hip against the counter again, still polishing the scoop.

"So, as I was saying, no. No relationships. Um, ever." Thomasina raised an eyebrow, "Ever, ever?" "Yeah."

"That's just it, though," Kathy continued, "none of his group dates around. They all are either single, or have a steady girlfriend slash fiancé slash wife. As far as I've heard, only a couple of them even went out with other girls before they all got in their weird group thing. Now... nothing."

Both girls stayed silent for a moment, with clear 'hmmmm' expressions on their faces. "Well!" Thomasina said brightly, "I'm off to home - I have some papers to grade and a new card for my face-flip to make! Au revoir, dahleenk!" This last was said in an exaggerated French accent, as she attempted to sail out of the store gracefully.

"You forgot your purse, dear!" Kathy called after her, ruining her exit.

Back at home, Thomasina Anne Sykes dropped her purse on the counter, and stared through her kitchen window. She took a deep breath, and began wildly jumping up and down and dancing to some internal song. A happy song. A really, really happy, insanely boppy song. And she most certainly did let out a loud, high pitched squeal that may or may not have meant something along the lines of '!'

When her new puppy came running to find out what all the noise was, she scooped him up happily, spun in a few tight circles with the dog held tightly to her chest. His name was, quite literally, Fido. She hadn't been sure what one was supposed to name a dog, as she'd never had one before. So she looked up a couple generic names, not wanting to name the poor thing something inappropriate.

She held the mutt out, dangling him by his armpits out in front of her, "Fido, puppy dear, sweety-pie, I'm going to re-name you. You, my darling dog, are now going to be named 'Dog'. But not in English! Oh no! In honor of the fantastically handsome Seth Clearwater, who is native to this beautiful land, I shall name you in Quileute! You are now, and shall forever-more be known as Kadído!

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Pronunciation: 'Kadído' is pronounced 'ka-daaaay-dough', yeah, the ´ over the 'i' makes it go 'aaaaay' - weird, huh? BeeTeeDubs, Quileute is a really pretty language, go on youtube and find some to listen to!


	4. Perhaps you'd like some Filling?

Perhaps you'd like some Filling?

A/N: Well, it has come to my attention that everyone seems to think that Thomasina is either eccentric or a stalker. She is actually neither of these, and the chapter after this one will make all that unpleasant confusion go away. Also, a couple mistakes from last chapter have been fixed, so... yeah.

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Collin often felt a little left out of the group. He wasn't the youngest of the pack, not anymore. He also had Brady, who was as close to a real brother that he would ever get. But Brady... fit. He fit with the others. He was loud and tough and liked to fight over random things. Collin was not sophisticated by any means, not even compared to the rest of the pack, and he wasn't refined. He could certainly hold his own with almost all of the older guys, too. He was closer to being as fast as Leah than anyone else, nearly as good at phasing as Jake, and had beat Paul's ass into the ground on more than one occasion.

But... it still remained. Collin didn't fit as well. He felt just as welcomed as all of his brothers, knew he was as cared for as the rest of them. He just... did his loner thing. Kind of like Paul, but Paul had his imprint. And he was one of the original three. Collin was also freakily wise beyond his years. He was only just barely 18, in his final year of high school, but whenever any of the pack wanted advice on something, something that they didn't want to immediately let their Alpha know that they couldn't figure out themselves, they went to Collin. Collin always had an answer.

So when the Beta of the pack had stared at the napkin with his imprint's number on it for a collective ten hours (two hours after he had got back from the leech scare, then three hours when he should have been snatching sleep, another two hours over at Sam and Emily's place, one half while he was showering (perhaps that one didn't count, since he just closed his eyes and saw it floating there... perhaps that was why he had taken such a long shower...), and the last two and a half when he was supposed to be checking over Brady's homework), he knew that he had to ask Collin.

Collin laughed at him for almost 15 minutes straight. All he'd done was ask him when he should call her...

Collin heard him approaching, long before his heavy footsteps sounded on the porch. He wondered what his Beta could possibly want - they'd just come from a meeting.

"Door's open!" he called when he heard Seth hesitate in front of the door.

It banged open, making him cringe, maybe there wouldn't be a mark that he'd have to explain later, if he was lucky that day.

"You always do that, it creeps me out."

Collin opened his mouth to point out the obvious, even going to far as to make a pointing gesture, when the taller boy interrupted.

"I know, you can hear me coming - I could hear you breathing, you know - but at least have the decency to let me knock and feel normal before screaming at me..."

His Beta had a far off look again, one that he'd worn all through the meeting.

"Dude, are you still freaking thinking about ways to talk to Thomasina Anne Sykes? Jus-""I talked to her yesterday." Seth said suddenly, not seeming to notice that he'd cut Collin off.

Collin heaved a sigh of relief, "Oh, fina... wait. You didn't call her Her. What's up?"

"I met her. I just... I felt kind of like a stalker if I used her name and stuff before I actually met her, and she told me herself. Well, more of a creepy, 'I'm-a-normal-human-and-am-watching-you' kind of stalker."

The younger boy nodded, "Alright, that makes sense. If you would have just said that, or even thought about it at the right time, none of us would have ragged on you about using her name, you know? Now why the hell are you interrupting my vegging time?"

"She gave me her number, when should I call her?" he said abruptly, without any preamble whatsoever.

Collin stared at him for a moment, blinking, before erupting into loud, raucous laughter. After a minute of this laughter, Seth began tapping his foot. After four minutes, he sighed loudly. After a full ten minutes, Collin stopped laughing, looked at him straight in the eye, pointed at him, and began laughing even harder. Seth endured a good five minutes of one of the lower ranking wolves pointing and laughing at him. He knew damn well that Collin wouldn't tell him squat if his eye was swollen shut, his nose possibly broken, and blood was trickling out of his mouth.

"_Alright!_" Seth yelled, finally having had enough. Still chuckling, wiping tears from his face, Collin sat back up from where he'd fallen over earlier.

"Okay, okay... but... did you seriously just ask me that?"

"Yes Collin, yes I did. And if you do not intend to answer me, I will go ahead and grind you up into little itty-bitty Collin-bits."

Collin sighed, and considered how to best answer his Beta. The wrong answer would probably get him a broken nose, and if the right answer didn't work, that he'd probably get a broken arm. Hmmmm... what a conundrum...

"Listen, did she seem really excited to give you her number?" A slow nod. "And when did you get her number?"

"Tuesday at noon. That's when she always comes into the shop..."

"Okaaayyy... going to ignore the creepiness of that statement, and move on. So, you got her number yesterday at noon, and it is now Wednesday at 3:30 in the afternoon. It's been barely over 24 hours, so not quite yet. Since she has school in the morning, I'd say call her tonight instead of tomorrow. Probably around... oh, 5 or 6."

"Why shouldn't I call right away? To show how interested I am?"

"Noooo way, No, capital N. That's a little bit on the desperate side, calling directly after school lets out. No, 5 or 6 shows that you're very interested, since you called the immediate day after, but you do have a life. Wouldn't want the girl to think you do nothing but think of her all day long, now would you?" Seth gave a long, drawn out sigh before flopping on the couch next to Collin. "Annnnd now I have nothing to do until five thirty. _Fantastic_."

Collin stared incredulously at Seth for a moment, before flopping back down as well, not being able to stop one thought from worming to the forefront of his mind. 'Annnnd now I have a nervous wreck of a Beta on my couch who expects me to give him imprint love advice until five thirty. _Fantastic_.'


	5. How 'bout them Cherries On Top?

How 'bout them Cherries on Top?

A/N: So, here it is, the big reveal! This is the chapter that will explain most of Thomasina's (really weird) behavior. I'm kind of winging some of the stuff happening, I have a plan for the big picture but a lot of the details... not so much. I would like for you all to review and tell me what you want to happen for things like when/how she finds out/is told about werewolves and/or imprinting, what kind of main villain there should be (I was thinking something along the lines of racist family members, or an ex-boyfriend) or even if there shouldn't be a villain, and have a big event that acts as the main villain. Those kinds of things! Tell me what you think. On with the story!

!~~~~~!~~~~~~~~!~~~~~~!

Early mornings were not Thomasina's thing, she decided at six thirty that morning. In this particular moment in time, she simply could not fathom why in hell she had chosen the profession that she had. Much less, why she had deemed it reasonable to live an entire forty five minutes away from where the school was.

She stumbled around, trying to get ready for the day. First came the shower, only slipping twice this particular day. Next was the fumbling for clothes for school. Finally, the shuffling downstairs to feed the dog and frog, along with herself.

Blearily sucking down the last dregs of her chocolate milk, Thomasina peered at the clock. Once she saw what time it was, she jumped up in a panic, suddenly not quite so tired. She ran for the bathroom, brushing teeth and doing last minute hair and make up fixes.

"Fudge my life, is it already seven? Aggggghhhh Kady, hurry UP!" While the puppy didn't exactly understand the words themselves, the meaning was clear - he did his business outside and ran back to the house. His Doesn't-Play-Much person was running out the door, and he made sure to prop his front paws on her knees and peer soulfully into her eyes, to remind her that he was there for her, and that it was okay to have fun occasionally.

Somehow, he didn't think she got the message.

!~~~~~!~~~~~~~!~~~~~!

Thankfully for her sanity, Thomasina got to the school at precisely the time that she always did - eight o'clock in the morning. She pulled into her spot, managing just this once to park correctly, and rummaged in the passenger seat to get her purse and snatch the coffee from the cup holder. Tripping happily to her classroom, Thomasina reflected that no matter what mood she was in earlier in the morning, she always felt better when she got to school. There was just something about the students in this town...

She settled her things at her desk, beginning to get ready for class, taking her time. Any minute now, the kids would come pouring in the door, and her day would begin.

Right on time, the first of the students began shyly edging their way past the doorframe and scuttling to their desks. Thomasina smiled, checking the clock. Five more minutes before class started. She smiled encouragingly at a couple of the shyer students, hoping that their confidence would grow in the coming weeks.

There was one particular kid she was worried about, he seemed so painfully shy, like he almost never interacted with kids his own age... The bell rang, interrupting her thoughts.

"Good morning, class!" The teacher almost chirruped, her bright curls bouncing.

"Good morning, Miss Sykes!" Her first grade class chanted back at her.

The boy seemed happy enough to talk and interact with adults, but was only a ghost of his real self around the other five year olds, she really would have to keep an eye on little Eli Uley.

!~~~~~!~~~~~~~!~~~~~~!

During lunch, Thomasina made sure that her whole class made it out the door before she went to buy her own from the cafeteria. She had once again, conveniently, forgotten to pack her lunch. Standing in line with kids far taller than her, and younger than her by up to nine years was a little disconcerting. And what was with half the boys staring at her warily, like she was about to fall and break her hip or something? Only maybe three of the girls were staring at her like that, but it made it all the more unsettling. She was used to her class and some of her co-workers in the grade school portion of the school classes staring at her. After all, they were relatively unused to coloring like hers. Granted, not many of the Quileute tribe _looked_ one hundred percent Native American - a good deal of them even had blonde hair and blue or green eyes.

Still, she highly doubted that the younger half of the school had even seen someone with her bright hair and extreme pale skin. She almost giggled aloud, in the middle of the line, at the thought that she must really fit the 'pale-face' look. She probably had the palest face in the world...

Her thoughts drifting back to her current situation, she made another disgruntled sweep of the cafeteria with her eyes, picking out the ones watching her like hawks. They were all _huge_! Even in comparison with the other gangly teenagers surrounding her, these kids were absolutely giant. They all looked well muscled, too. Like they all worked out at the same place. Or, you know, took the same drugs. She didn't think that there was a drug problem in La Push, and she was sure that at least _one_ of the gossips in town that she had gotten to know would have said something by now if there was something going on. _'Oh well. There must be some really good genes available in their heritage - is it really that unreasonable to assume that in such a small community, there be so many kids that look like they could be siblings?'_

Shaking her musing off, Thomasina grabbed a salad and chicken strips before heading for the door. A brief scuffle caught her eye - it was at a table of predominantly the huge boys, the occasional smaller girl with them. She expected one of the teachers who were eating in the cafeteria to yell at them to keep it down, even going so far as to glance over at their table. What she saw, however, was surprising. The teachers were watching the kids, alright, but they were almost all of them smiling at the kids almost proudly.

_'Whatever, it's none of my business what the high school teachers do with their kids...'_

!~~~~~~!~~~~~~~~~!~~~~~~!

Settling in for her lunch in her classroom, Thomasina began shuffling through the worksheets that her kids had completed before lunch period. Taking a bite with one hand, she marked an incorrect answer on the first sheet.

Just as she was about to take another bite, a knock on her doorframe made her pause, looking up. A young man stood in the doorway, he looked like the ones that had been staring at her in the cafeteria - big, tall, and bronze. He also looked surprised.

"Ummm, Thomasina Sykes?" He seemed unsure, as if he had been expecting someone else to be in here.

"Yep, can I help you?" She felt safe enough in the thought that she didn't know him. She hadn't met any young men recentl... oh _shit_. She scrambled for her ring of cards on it, hoping she was being at least relatively discreet, flipping hastily for the last card, looking from it to him for a brief second before relaxing. No. She didn't know him.

"Uh, I actually have something for you." Uh oh... Lyla had warned her about this, some of the older kids in the high school tended to like girls that didn't look like every girl that he'd ever seen, and tried sometimes to... pursue some of the more exotic looking teachers.

"Ummmkay?" She attempted to be as dismissive as possible without being rude. She allowed her eyes to drift back down to her work, taking another bite and marking another wrong answer. He fidgeted in her doorway for a second, before walking forward and dropping a piece of paper on her desk.

"It's from Seth Clearwater."

Thomasina's head shot up, her heart sinking and trying desperately not to show her near-horror on her face. Had Kathy been mistaken? Was he really not graduated? Oh shit, had she been flirting with a kid? Shitshitshit...

"Oh, does he attend school here?" She asked in what she hoped was a casual voice. The boy grinned, he dark eyes crinkling... very much like she was told her own did when she was pleased about something.

"No, he just heard that you were here and told me to give this to you. He's sort of like my big brother." The red head visibly relaxed. So. Kathy had been right. It was a small town. He probably had just mentioned her to this kid and he had in turn mentioned seeing her here frequently. In fact, that might be why the kid was so nervous at first - he clearly had a bit of hero worship going on in the Seth area. If he thought that Seth liked her, he probably thought that if he screwed up giving her a scrap of paper, she would hate Seth, and Seth, in turn, would hate _him_ forever. She almost sighed. Teenagers were so overdramatic.

"Alright, thank you. Could you tell him that I got it when you see him next, please?" The poor boy started, seemingly having been lost in thought. "Oh! Yeah, sure, will do. Umm... are you... do you like him?" He seemed nervous, like he was pretty sure that she would freak out on him. "Huh?" She was the startled one now. "Oh, um, yeah, he was very nice." He seemed troubled, brow furrowing in what seemed to be confusion. "That's... that's it? Just nice?"

Thomasina looked up at him, one eyebrow raised and a relatively exasperated twist to her mouth, "I'm sorry, but I met him for all of three minutes - I get that you don't want to disappoint him, but I didn't exactly get his life story in those few minutes." The kid, well, young man really, looked down, almost despondent. "Yeah, okay. I'll tell him you got it."

Thomasina shook her head at his now retreating figure. That had been ridiculous! Since when did kids care so much about their elders' love lives. Sighing to herself, she looked down at the folded note, realizing that it was just a folded up piece of scratch paper. She poked at it for a moment, wondering wether it was worth it to open it right now, or if she should wait until she got home to bother. 'Hmmm'ing slightly, she decided eventually that perhaps he had something that couldn't wait until she got home to say, which would be why he sent the younger boy with his message. She finally smoothed the paper open, calmly and meticulously un-crinkling the edges and using her fingernail to un-crease the corners. Once it was flattened enough for her standards, she glanced at the words.

She only felt vaguely silly when she saw the words, as she had expended so much effort for such a short missive. It merely read:

"Hey, I totally forgot to leave you my number, so you wouldn't wonder who the heck was calling you. Here it is! PS: I hope Owen was polite - I told him not to bug you, but..."

Hmm. So the boy was Owen. Not that she would recognize him the next time they met, or anything. But still. After a moment of thought, Thomasina neatly re-folded the paper and tucked it into her purse, just before the bell rang and her students flooded back into the classroom. Leaving her staring between the clock and her uneaten salad.

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Several of her students had parents that needed to come pick them up, either living too far out for the bus to take them, or pure paranoia on their parents' parts. She didn't mind either way, it gave her an excuse to not go back to her empty house and grade papers. She sat at her desk, keeping one eye on the kids playing snakes and ladders, and the other zeroed in on figuring out how her cell phone worked so she could enter Seth's number.

The first mother walked in the door, smiling and waiting patiently for Thomasina to grab her face flip, look up at the woman, and nod, smiling. "How are you Mrs. Thail? Picking up Eli today also?" Little Molly went running to her mother, squealing with delight when she was swooped up. "Nope, not today. I've got some errands I need to run and Emily wants him home right away. And please, call me Kim. This is such a small town, anyone calling me by anything but my first name sounds weird." Thomasina smiled up at her, lighting up inside. Was she really being accepted into the town a little more now? "Oh, I know what you mean - it always feels strange when anyone from my hometown calls me anything but Tommy. I'll make you a deal, if I call you Kim, you have to call me by my first name. Or... you know, one of the many variations of it."

Kim seemed to let a sly smile creep onto her face momentarily, but it was gone so fast that Thomasina had to guess that she had been imagining it. "Alright then, I guess I better go, I'll see you tomorrow Tommy!" The redhead sighed a little when the woman left, happily. She had always had that one reservation about living on the... well, reservation. These people were some of the last of their tribe, and were a small, tight community. She'd been worried that she wouldn't be accepted here. But it had turned out that her fears were all unfounded - she'd been welcomed with open arms. More than that, she'd been welcomed with open hearts as well.

Well, she supposed that when one's language was dying, one did not turn down someone offering to teach it to their children. It was not what Thomasina had planned in her early days of college. But going to school in Seattle, and being a major in languages, well, she supposed it was inevitable that she would find out about the Quileute's plight. She'd learned the language as best she could, switched her degree to one of teaching, and voila! There she was.

Another parent walked in, the identification process repeated, and the mother walked out with her six year old, allowing him to chatter to her excitedly about the day. Thomasina smiled after them - that boy could really keep you running. Her view was abruptly blocked, however, by an extremely tall and imposing man. She looked up at him, calmly went for her face flip, and started frowning. The man, in the mean-while, walked over to Eli and tapped him on the shoulder. Thomasina was frantically flipping through her stack of cards with faces and names on them, trying to find the strange man who was now walking towards the door with Eli Uley.

"Excuse me, sir?" she called out.

He stopped, turning to her with a pleasant smile on his face, "Yes Miss Sykes?" He seemed so nice! But she could never be too careful... "I'm so sorry, but could you please show me some identification? I need to make sure that Eli is going home with the right person." He stared at her, confused. "I'm his father." Thomasina bit her lip, thoroughly intimidated. The man wasn't even trying to be frightening, he was just big and tall and muscly, and he scared her.

"I don't mean to be rude, but I have no way of telling that, so if you could just show me your drivers license or something so I can know for sure that you're Sam Uley, you can go ahead." He seemed even more confused this time. "But you saw me just last week - I was here with Emily to pick up Eli and she introduced us!" He seemed to be getting frustrated now, not understanding what was going on. Thomasina was getting redder and redder in the face, her humiliation at the situation showing through. "I know, Mrs. Uley did introduce me to her husband last week. But I still can't tell if it's you without ID. Didn't she tell you?" The man who said he was Sam Uley sighed, "Did my wife tell me what? You're not making a whole lot of sense miss."

Thomasina took a deep breath, telling herself that this would be easier than last time this happened. It would get easier in time, nothing was wrong. "I'm sorry, but could you either show me some ID, or call your wife? I will explain as soon as you can prove you are who you say you are."

!~~~~~~!~~~~~~~~~!~~~~~~!

Sam stared at the frustrating young woman. She'd just met him last week! How could she not remember him? This was so ridiculous. He opened his mouth to argue once again when a quick scent caught his attention. It was the smell of tears. The poor girl was nearly crying. And shame, there was shame in that mix of negative scents. Fine, if showing her some ID is what it took to calm his brother's imprint down, so be it.

"Alright, alright, I've got ID right here. You'd better have a really good explanation for this, though." She nearly lunged for the card he held out, studying it and looking back and forth between it and him. Finally, she relaxed and handed it back to him, humiliation coloring her cheeks.

"Okay, see, um, the thing is, I have... I have prosopagnosia." She looked into his face anxiously, and he assumed she only found the blankness that he came up with when he tried to think what that word could mean. "It's the medical term for face-blindness." Again with the blank-look-reading. "It means I can't recognize faces. I haven't got it severely, so faces make sense to me and I can read emotions and things like that, but I never recognize anyone. My own mother could walk by me in the store and I wouldn't know it was her but for a very strong suspicion that my mother has the same hair cut and jacket as the woman that just passed me."

Understanding began dawning on Sam's face, "Oh." was all he could come up with to say. "Oh." He said it again, for good measure. She watched him warily, until he smiled at her, "Well, I can absolutely see why you needed my ID now. Thank you for being so persistent that my son not leave with what you thought might be a stranger." He did, in fact, feel very grateful to her. If she had just folded and let him walk away, that could have been dangerous. Very dangerous.

"That's just my job, Mr. Uley. If you wouldn't mind not telling anyone about this, I would also be grateful." His brow furrowed, and she was pretty sure that that was the exact same expression Owen had used earlier that day. "If you don't mind me asking, why does this need to be such a secret? It's not like it's anything to be ashamed of." Thomasina laughed, "Oh, I'm not ashamed of my disability, it's just that it could be very dangerous. If someone... unsavory, were to find out, they could very easily convince me that I knew them - if they knew one of my friends or family well enough - and... well, do something bad." She trailed off rather lamely, not wanting to say anything too abrupt or callous in front of the remaining three children.

"I understand completely. I'm so sorry to have embarrassed you, Miss Sykes. I'll see you some other time?" She smiled at him, "Yeah, sure. Oh! Would you mind me taking your picture?" Sam had a vague feeling of de ja vu, unsure of where this was going. "Um, sure, go ahead." Then it hit him. She had asked the same thing of Seth, a couple days ago. "You mind if I ask why?" Perhaps he could clear up a mystery that he knew had been bothering his brother for some time now. She looked up from fiddling with her lens cap.

"Oh, it's so I can laminate it onto a card with your name - so you don't have to give me your ID every time!"

Sam left feeling like he had just come away from one of the most exemplary cases of 'making the best of it' he'd ever seen. And he was a goddamn werewolf.

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A/N: Alright, so there it is - why Thomasina acts like such a weirdo! In other news, I got a review asking if I could please write in first person - what does everyone else think? Would it go with the story/my writing style? I wanna know!

Thanks so much for reading!


	6. A big whopping serving of Mishaps

A big whopping serving of Mishaps

A/N: Just wanted to apologize for being so ridiculously late with this chapter. Unfortunately, life caught up with me and rather rudely flying tackled me in the backs of my knees, so I was relatively busy for several months - however, this isn't a Dead Fic, and I do have plans to finish it... just, don't expect too many quick updates? Sorry again... Anyways, I got several reviews saying how much you all liked the prosopagnosia development, so I'm really looking forward to revealing the other little things about Thomasina!

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Colin had to laugh, really. It was actually unfortunate that he did, since Seth's recent threat was only narrowly non-applicable. Even after his discussion with Seth over Thomasina's phone number, the Beta of the pack still managed to agonize over it for another hour and a half. Of course, just as he was about to pick up the phone to call her, there was another leech alert. Naturally.

Seth was furious, and ended up trying to take out most of his anger on the terribly confused vampire - who, as it turned out, was a vegetarian looking for the Cullens. So of course the newly imprinted wolf couldn't actually rip him to shreds, as the bloodsucker simply had the misfortune to be directionally challenged and unable to follow the Cullens' strict instructions to ABSOLUTELY NOT go on the La Push reservation. If Seth hadn't been so ridiculously easy going when it came to vampires, the poor thing may have ended up a bonfire anyways.

Then, of course, the next day he had a panic attack at the thought of calling Miss Sykes too late, and screwing everything up. Colin was rather amused by his attempt at stalling by sending Owen with his number, ostensibly so that 'she wouldn't be confused as to who was calling her'. Right. Because that was such a concern. He didn't really convinced anyone else in the pack either, but they all shut up long enough to let him preserve his, admittedly much maligned, sense of dignity.

However, there turned out to be one good thing for Seth that came about that day before he was able to call - Sam dropped by after picking up Eli from school. He pulled up to Jake's house in his truck and the pack piled out of the house to greet their former Alpha and honorary nephew. The man waded through the throng of human shaped wolves, holding his son clear - much to the boy's delight, as he was made taller than all of the gigantic men around him.

"Seth, Seth!" he called.

Seth looked up from fiddling with his cell phone on the porch, "Yeah Sam? I thought you guys and Emily were headed into town today?"

Sam waved his questions aside, "Yes, but I wanted to stop by and let you know something about Thomasina first. I assume Owen hasn't come back from school yet?" Seth had the grace to blush at the implication of his earlier cop-out. "No, the bus hasn't arrived yet."

"Good, then I didn't waste my time. Two things, kiddo." Sam held up two fingers, helpfully outlining his points. "One, Thomasina doesn't _attend_ school, she _teaches_ it. Two, she had proso-something-or-other. It means she can't recognize faces, which is why she took your picture - she has a stack of cards that she keeps pictures of people that she knows and their names on, so that she doesn't always have to ask for ID."

With that said, Sam made an about face and waded back through the swarm of younger pack members. He ignored the shocked look on Seth's face, as well as the many entreaties from the youngsters to take them with him for Emily's cooking. He promptly bundled his son back in the truck, lifted one or two of the more desperate pups out of the truck bed by their scruffs ("But Sam, we're _starving_, and Nessie is coming over today and she makes _horrible_ _food_." Please, like he cared. He was going to an indoor water park with his imprint and pup. They could choke down Jake's half-vampire imprint's cooking if they were too lazy to make it themselves. "I heard that! She makes great food you traitors!" Jake was heard yelling from within the house. There, let them deal with an affronted imprintee).

The pack was standing in Jake's front yard, staring after Sam's truck, when it finally occurred to them that they had a brand new piece of information about their Beta's imprint with which to give him a hard time. Zeke, one of the newer members of the pack, opened his mouth.

"One word out of any of you about me chasing older women, and I will eviscerate you all. Jake won't stop me." Seth deadpanned, never looking up from his phone.

Their Alpha finally poked his head out of the creaky screen door, "Well, I'll let you maim them slightly. We need them on their feet, I can't feed mouths that can't wander off and find grub to stuff their faces with in other places!"

Several of the pack - including the mouthy Zeke - pouted at Jake, dramatically stuck their collective noses in the air, stripped, phased, and took off for the forest. Jake rolled his eyes, "Teenagers, I swear. Was I ever that melodramatic?" Seth paused, not looking up, but hovered his thumb over the next key on the keypad. "Nevermind, don't answer that. I forgot you were actually phased and in the pack by then." Jake said, quickly retreating back into the house.

!~~~~~!~~~~~~~~!~~~~~~!

Things were not going well for Thomasina, she had popped a tire on the way back home, which would have been fine, as she was fully capable of changing a tire... except for the fact that the lugnuts had literally rusted on, and there was no way that she could muscle them off. And of course, the only people who had stopped to help were the Uley's on their way to a fun family weekend. Thank god tomorrow was a holiday, Thomasina thought to herself, or she might just actually scream. So, the Uley's stopped to help her, and she had to stand there in acute embarrassment as Sam Uley changed her tire for her. It didn't look like it took him much actual effort, but at least he put on a show of struggling with it for all of four seconds before the rust cracked. That was nice of him, she supposed, to pretend that it had actually cost him effort. She thankfully, had not had to use her face-flip, as she had recognized both their car and Mrs. Uley's facial scarring.

Through the course of her husband changing Thomasina's tire, Emily had managed to convince her to call her by her given name, and Mr. Uley had called out that she should do the same for him. Thomasina had been confused, as when Emily had insisted on being on a first name basis, she had had the exact same expression that Kim had earlier that day, a sly, knowing smile. How very odd. Eli had cheerfully waved at her from the backseat, and that was the end of good things happening for quite some time.

On her way home after the tire fiasco, Thomasina's stereo went on the fritz, leaving her with no music for an undefined period of time. When she got home finally, she tripped getting out of the car, scraping up her left knee and both palms on the gravel of her driveway, as well as ruining the pants she was wearing. Furiously, she grabbed her bag and made her way inside, storming back out when she realized she had forgotten her thermos. Of course, she seemed to have forgotten it at the school, so the extra trip was fruitless. Sighing, Thomasina rubbed her temples and walked back into her house.

Naturally, Kadído had made a mess in the hallway, and made sure to make her feel guilty for punishing him for it by tucking in his tail, drooping down his ears, and peering soulfully through his lashes up at her. Next, she dropped and broke a bowl, which she of course managed to cut her thus-far uninjured knee on while cleaning up the broken porcelain. And finally, as the culminating frustration, her doorbell, cell phone, and home phone all rang at the same time as she was cleaning up the blood from her knee.

"AHHHRRRRGGGGHHH." Was really all she had to say at that point.

Figuring that the cell phone could wait, as could the person at the door, she dove for the home phone, nearly dropping it in her haste. "Hi, hang on a second." She panted into the phone as she limped down the hall to the door. Whoever was on the phone, thankfully, heard her and only said, "Okay!" as she finally got to the door. Opening her door, she saw a tall, rangy looking young man standing in her doorway with a broad smile on his face. "Um... hello? Can I help you?" The smile faded slightly, "Oh, uh, do you remember me? I came into your classroom earlier today... to give you a note from Seth?"

Thomasina thought fast for a moment, he looked a little old to be in high school, but then, she remembered distinctly thinking that about Owen, and he looked approximately the same age as all the ridiculously huge teenagers in the cafeteria... and his voice did have a familiar timbre to it. "...Owen, right?" The wattage to his smile was restored to its former brilliance. "Yup, that's me!" "Hang on just a moment, ok?" She received a nod in response, so she half closed the door and brought the phone back up to her ear.

"Hey, are you still there?"

"Yes sweetie, I'm still here. I was just calling to ask how you were, and if you wanted to visit home this weekend?"

"Oh, hi mom! No, I'm really sorry... I have a lot of grading to do this weekend, plus I might have plans."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, I don't know yet though, I'll let you know how it goes. Right now I've got someone at my door, can I call you back either later tonight or tomorrow?"

"Oh, dad and I are going out tonight, why don't you call me back tomorrow?"

"Alright mom, will do. Love you, have fun!"

"Bye, and I'll do that." She could hear the smile in her mother's voice as she said her goodbyes.

Pressing the end button, Thomasina re-opened the door, only to discover three more teenagers on her porch than there were before. Now she couldn't tell which one was Owen. Crap. There were two ginormous boys, one alarmingly tall and fit girl, and one relatively normal sized boy. Alright, so Owen was one of two. Ah! One of the boys had a silver hoop through one ear, excellent. Now if she could only remember if Owen had a piercing or not.

Owen solved her dilemma for her though, by speaking up, "Miss Sykes, these are my friends, Zeke," he motioned to the boy with the hoop, "Heidi," he pointed to the girl, "and her boyfriend Derrick." he said as he patted the shortest of the three boys on the shoulder. "Guys, this is Thomasina Sykes, she teaches Quileute at the elementary school." The teenagers all waved at her with varying degrees of interest, murmuring their hellos.

Bemused, Thomasina smiled and said hello back, "Well, it's always great to meet people, but I have to ask what you all are doing here... and how you knew I was here." Owen's eyes got big, and he blushed profusely, "Well, I... I... you see, I..." Derrick rolled his eyes at the taller boy, who was clearly at a loss. "I live in the next house over, when Owen mentioned that he met the new teacher, I told him that you were my new neighbor. You'll have to forgive us, in a town this small, word tends to get around." Thomasina smiled, "That's fine, I wasn't too worried about that - I mean, come on, it's to be expected that everyone knows everyone here. What I was really after was what you all showed up on my doorstep _for_. Oh, and I'm being rude, please come in."

Instantly, as soon as they were in the house, Owen, Zeke, and Heidi stiffened, "Are you bleeding?" Zeke blurted out at the same time as Heidi nearly yelled, "Oh my god, you're bleeding!" Owen paled drastically, running ahead to the kitchen, "Where are the paper towels? Oh my god, where's the first aid kit? _You're bleeding and you just stood there to chat with us?_" The three of them ran around the house, frantically looking for the first aid kit and paper towels.

Thomasina froze, staring at them with wide eyes, but Derrick rolling his eyes and walking calmly into the kitchen clued her in to the fact that this was likely normal behavior for them.

"So, Miss Sykes, since my girlfriend and her lackeys decided to have a nervous breakdown because you cut you knee, would you be so kind as to tell me where the first aid kit is?" Still slightly startled by all the commotion, Thomasina merely said, "Second door on the right, cabinet behind the mirror..." While the boy was getting it, each other member of their impromptu party ran through the kitchen at least once, frantically looking for something to staunch the pitifully slow and small trickle of blood from her right knee.

!~~~~~!~~~~~~~~!~~~~~~!

Thomasina was seriously beginning to question the sanity of her decision to let these teenagers into her house. Kadído was still outside, and really shouldn't be out there alone at his age. There was still shattered porcelain on her kitchen floor, mixed in with what looked like an alarming amount of blood - though it was really just mixed with the water she had spilled in addition to breaking the bowl. She sighed. She supposed that perhaps she should be grateful for small allowances, such as the fact that the bowl had been empty when she had dropped it.

In addition to all the chaos, she also realized that she still didn't know who had called her cell phone. Oh well, that could be dealt with after more immediate problems were solved. Rubbing her temples for what seemed to be the third time that day, Thomasina called up her 'Teacher Voice' and yelled at the panicking teens.

"That is QUITE enough!" There, that ought to do it. Firm, authoritative, but not too loud or domineering.

The occupants of her house were all, thankfully, in the kitchen at that point, and all stopped on command.

"Now, I appreciate that you all are trying to help me, but instead of running around like chickens with your heads cut off, I propose that you actually do what needs to be done."

Owen looked properly chastised, "Er, but... what needs to be done?"

The look that the much shorter woman leveled at him was two parts approval and one part of something that made him feel distinctly smaller.

"Perhaps asking that in the beginning rather than invading my house and running amok in it would have been more constructive?" A single brow was quirked. "But all the same, like I said before, I do appreciate the sentiment. Owen, if you could go get me dog from the yard, that would be great - his name is Kadído, he should come when called. If not, I'm sure you won't mind the exercise. Heidi, could you go get my ShopVac out of my pantry - last door in the hall way - and vacuum up this mess? And Zeke, once Heidi is done, could you put on the rubber gloves under my sink and use the disinfectant and paper towels on the counter to clean up the floor? Ah, and thank you Derrick, I can bandage up myself."

Much to her gratification, all three of the huge teens jumped to do her bidding, and her household felt less like a tornado had gone through it in about five minutes flat. By the time she had finished bandaging herself, the whole crew of youngsters had been all done with their assigned tasks for several minutes.

"Alright, well, now that that adventure is done with, I guess you all should tell me what you came over for originally. I'm guessing that it wasn't just to clean up my house?"

Heidi laughed, Thomasina liked her laugh, it was loud and brassy - unashamed. "No, not really Miss Sykes. We actually came over because Owen said that you were the new Quileute language teacher...?" She paused there, clearly waiting for affirmation before she went on. The flame haired woman nodded, "I am. How did you know?" The question was directed at Owen, who shook himself out of staring at her hair, "Oh, uh, well, your walls - in the school, I mean - were all covered with the Quileute alphabet, and you were grading worksheets in Quileute, so I kind of assumed..."

Thomasina nodded again, and Heidi picked up where she left off, "Well, as you probably know, teaching Quileute in school has only been a recent thing - before it was mostly only a few of the elders and the few kids that they could manage to get to sit still long enough to beat it into them. None of us learned it as kids, and none of the elders have had time. We've tried studying it on our own, and we're...we're learning, but our Pa...our group of friends are mostly the kids that the elders go their hands on, and they think it's pretty damn...um, darn funny to speak Quileute around us and not let us know what's going on."

Thomasina nodded for her to go on again, "So...well, we heard that you were teaching it at the school. We'd like to learn from you, if you've got the time. We can't really pay you, 'cause we're all broke, but we can do shi...um, stuff around your house and yard work for you. You know, run errands, make repairs, that kind of thing."

The tall Quileute girl seemed to be on a roll, so Thomasina figured she'd let her run out of steam before she said anything.

"We really want to learn, but we've kind of hit a point where unless someone who actually knows the language corrects us, we're going to start making stupid mistakes. We'll do grading for you and stuff if you want, and other stuff so you can have the time and you don't have to take up more time than you usually would for every day things. We'll introduce you to anyone you want to know, and you are also invited to come to our monthly bonfires that our group of friends and the elders have - they're pretty wicked, we have a ton of food and the elders tell stories about the ancient times and sometimes we go cliff-diving - everyone would be thrilled to have you there..."

Heidi paused for a moment, "I've been rambling for a while haven't I." She turned an irritated look at her boyfriend, who Thomasina only just now notices (as they were sitting together) to be quite a bit shorter than her, "Why didn't you stop me?"

Derrick seemed unfazed by his intimidating girlfriend, "You weren't really rambling, you never repeated yourself, and it all needed to be said anyways. Besides, you love me too much to stay mad at me."

Thomasina felt vaguely like an intruder - in her own house, no less! - on the moment the two teenagers, who couldn't be more than fifteen, shared after the boy's words. She cleared her throat, "Well, as nice as all that is, you didn't really have to bribe me. As long as you help me out with a few things so I still have time for my official classes, I'll be glad to help you!"

The relief from all four kids was tangible, and Thomasina smiled at them - it was rare that you ran into a kid their age so eager to learn. "Unfortunately, I can't start this weekend, as I have quite a bit of grading to catch up on. Do you all have anywhere you need to be in the next few hours?" A few looks were exchanged between the four, and a general consensus was reached when they all shook their heads. "Um, this might sound weird, but how does staying for dinner sound? I can whip something up and we can hash out a schedule for when we'll meet and what you'll do to keep my time for you guys free?"

Thomasina didn't quite dare let the hope she felt creep into her voice, she knew they were only teenagers, but that was almost the point - she knew the community accepted her, but she didn't really feel she was a part of it. This might help her feel like an actual part of this community.

Her fears of being given strange looks and turned down were blown away a second later when Heidi, Owen, and Zeke nearly broke her eardrums with their shouted acceptance, and Derrick nearly clasped his hands in front of his chin while nodding.

Zeke elaborated, "Oh my god Miss S, you have no idea the horrible fate you've saved us from! Our friend's girlfriend was coming over today and she was going to cook for us - she is a HORRIBLE cook, and despite our excellent immune systems, I'm pretty sure that she would have poisoned us. And Jake would have wolfed it down and glared at us until we did the same. God, I thought I was going to have to go back there and pretend not to be hungry..."

Thomasina laughed at him, "Ouch, that must be pretty terrible. And you don't have to call me Miss 'Ess', Thomasina or any variation thereof is fine - you guys aren't my in-school students!"

Later that night, after Thomasina had sent the teens off to their various homes, she wondered what it was that had been bothering her all day. She could swear that there was something she was forgetting, if she could only remember what it was!

!~~~~~!~~~~~~~~!~~~~~~!

Seth stared at his cell phone well into the night, willing it to ring. He'd finally called Thomasina, and not only had she not answered, she also had not called back. He smacked his head back onto his headboard. Seriously, he could just not catch a break these days.

!~~~~~!~~~~~~~~!~~~~~~!

A/N: Well, there she is - I've been working on this for quite some time, and only recently got around to actually writing it. I've always wondered something - why is it that in imprint fics, it's like a rule that the wolf has to bring the imprint to a bonfire before telling her about the big secret? Personally, I would be like, 'Oh, yeah, ha ha, funny - like I'm going to believe that. Bye, jackass, have a nice life.' I mean, I get that usually the chick is in love, and is willing to suspend her disbelief for the guy she loves, but... still... It's stupid, is what I'm saying. It's an unnecessary trope that makes no practical sense to me. Oh well. Anyways, Happy Lunar New Year everyone! Lister out.


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